There used to be a really nice Hollywood bowl in Loughborough many years ago which used to be trendy, stylish and fun to visit. Since it closed down I hadn't bowled in ages so me and my boyfriend took a trip to Hollywood bowl in Leicester which this review is based on.
INTRODUCTION Hollywood Bowl is voted UK's no 1 tenpin bowling experience. There are 24 venues all over the UK, part of the Mitchell's and Butler's leisure venues Hollywood bowl have been around for over 15 years. They are normally situated within busy leisure complexes or just outside of city centres. To find one you can use their website or look in your local yellow pages.
PRICES Like all bowling places there are always offers for weekday or before lunch time bowling sessions and they do things like children bowl free with adults etc but only when its really quiet when it is busy you are lucky to even bowl let alone get a discount. The prices off peak (all weekdays for 6 except for bank holidays) are Adult £2.60 per game Under 16's £1.80 per game Peak times the charge goes up a considerable amount Adult £4.00 per game Under 16's £3.00 per game The prices don't sound too bad at face value but one game isn't enough you need at least 2 and even then if there are only two of you 2 games lasts about 30 minutes which hardly constitutes an evening out because we paid £16.00 for half an hour of bowling. The price includes shoe hire, which is good.
BOOKING Its up to you how you book you can do it one of 3 ways just turn up and be prepared to wait but don't ever do this on a real busy time like a Saturday evening because you just wont get to bowl at all, in the day you wont have a problem unless it is school holidays or there is a school party in. You can do what we did and book over the telephone but again if you would like a weekend I would recommend doing it a few days in advance or the third and probably the best way of booking is over the internet because you pay online, you have prove you've booked and you get instant confirmation.
BOWLING The
main emphasis at Hollywood bowl is the bowling, which may seem a little obvious but some entertainment venues concentrate on other things equally as much, which I don't think, works out. Bowling is really simple and you can get really good when you get into a rhythm. We always key in a fun nicknames into the computer (an assistant can do this for you if your not sure on how to) and choose what balls we wants to use at the beginning and then swipe and swap because there are really light balls (which I like) then really heavy balls and then some in between balls. I personally like the light ones because I can roll them faster. The lanes are all the same length and run across the back of the building there are roughly 25 lanes with two parties to each set of lanes. The winner is the one who knocks the most pins down overall with extra points for getting a strike which is where you knock every pin down with one ball or a spare which is when you knock tall the pins down with two balls. You always get two balls per frame unless you get a strike then at the end of the game which is 10 frames you will get a further bowl for a spare and two bowls for a strike. If you have got kids you can have the sides up so you always get at least a couple of pins down because it can get a little tedious when you keep getting a big zero. You can also roll your ball from a ramp to get a better aim and get more pins down.
FACILITIES -Arcade - This is probably more profitable for the place than the actual bowling is because it is not huge but it is big enough to have several fruit machines, football games, grab machines, dance machines, basketball games and air hockey. When we were there it was really busy with people congregating and using all the machines, which were not cheap. You can see people pumping the pounds in one after another without a second thought. I'm not one to spend a lot of money on these things but as we were looking at staying out for more than half an hour we decided to change £5 between us and we had a fun game on air hockey and swapped the rest for 10p's and played in a horse racing game and a 10p shuffle game which was all good fun until we spent all of our money L very addictive though.
-Café- The café area looks a bit like a burger king or something because it is setup just like a burger bar with a menu board behind the counters and lots of seating areas. It is a nice bright area but didn't seem to attract many people but we didn't go till late evening so I suppose people had gone past having their tea. You could order things like hot dogs' nacho's, burgers, pizzas, southern fried chicken, baguettes and chips. The prices are pretty much what you would expect from a fast food outlet pizzas were about £5 burgers were about £3.50 and hotdogs were about £3.
-Bar- The bar is really big and has its won entrance as well as the one connected to the bowling area so from the outside it looks like a normal bar you go in for a quick drink. It is modern with a nice dim light with a large bar area. It was quite busy in the seating areas but not at the actual bar so we got served immediately which was nice. All the staff were wearing name badges and were bubbly and friendly. The bar had a real fun atmosphere to it and it was nice because it was for adults so it felt more sophisticated than the bowling area because although it was quite noisy it was a sociable area unlike the busy hustle bustle feeling you get from being in the bowling area. I thought the drinks were going to be really expensive but we had 2 cokes and it came to £2.90, which I was quite surprised at.
What I really like about bowling though if you are spending a while on a lane or if you just fancy a nice cold drink while your playing you don't have to abandon the game and head to the bar or café you can call for lane service by hitting a button on the bowling terminal and you get a waiter or waitress who will take your order of food or drink and bring it back to you on your aisle. When it gets really busy I can imagine the service can take a while but it is a really good idea especially if you are in a large group.
MY EXPERIENCE Me and my boyfriend don't go bowling on a regular basis and we have been stung before by going on a Saturday evening and expecting to just pay and play but as I am sure everyone is away you can't get in till past midnight !! Now if we ever get the urge to go we book in advance. This particular time we booked on the Thursday night, which we tried to get 2 games at 8pm, which was already full sow e opted for 8:50pm with our two games which was relayed to me and then back to the reservations line. Saturday evening we drive to the bowling alley and give our name then to be told you have only booked 1 game and in fact you are late. Well why you would book one game in the first place and be late as well! I think you can imagine I wasn't best please at being told this who would we had just travelled to get there booked two days in advance and I was being told we were late. I was very polite and said there must be a mistake and we had booked 2 games for 8:50 this had been double checked on the telephone, the assistant took one look at me and said well no the computer is saying you have booked one game and two days is not in advance for them as they are sooooo busy. Well by this time I am getting quite annoyed because there was no empathy for the situation and no apology but it maybe down wrong the usual customer service patter nothing. Having worked in customer service I know what its like to be let down by a booking system but would never dream about blaming the customer. In the end there was a very stand offish atmosphere and I was about to say forget it I wont be back but I had to think we had just travelled especially so I but my tongue. The next thing I really couldn't believe the assistant said we either take the 1 game and if we play quick enough we maybe able to pay for another or if we persist in saying we had booked two games they did not have our booking and we wouldn't get a game! As I think anyone by now would be pretty hacked off by the situation so I just said to my boyfriend pay him and we'll take this further we wont be having anymore games, Ok so by now I know my boyfriend is cringing to death and I am getting angrier by the assistants attitude every second. Just as we pay for the game the manager taps the assistant on the shoulder turns the computer round and points at the screen and all of a sudden we can have the two games we originally booked! Well by now I couldn't care less and just didn't want to be near the assistant for any longer so I just sighed and walked off whilst my boyfriend paid. I don't know if the assistant was looking at the wrong booking or there was another slot or something who knows, all I know is that he was rude, unapologetic and dam right miserable. As soon as we began bowling we were fine we had great fun having mini competitions and seeing who could get as many strikes as possible. We had a lovely drink in the bar and had a laugh going on a couple of the arcade games. It was a really enjoyable evening apart from the service provided by some members of staff, which really spoilt it, as Hollywood bowl, in Leicester has a really fun atmosphere. What I really liked about bowling on a Saturday evening is that after nine o clock all the lights around the allies go off and the balls and pins go ultraviolet so it looks a but like you are at a disco which is great fun. When we bowled we didn't have the sides up which made some of the goes a bit pointless when you saw the ball rolling down the side ooppss. There are people of all ages bowling and entertaining themselves I can see why you would go there on a night out. All in all we spent around £40 between us, which included the £16 for bowling. I like the fact that this specific bowling alley was situated in a complex with cinemas, bars and restaurants nearby so you can get everything you need for a good night out. One thing I would say though for the ladies don't wear a skirt I made the mistake of wearing a little denim skirt and I was feeling very anxious all evening trying to cover my backside every time I rolled the dam ball! I would also say remember to take a pair of socks with you because you have to wear bowling shoes which are not nice to wear if you are bare foot and its not nice for the next person that has to wear them because they are not very well sanitized.
OVERALL Although I have based my review on the Leicester Hollywood Bowl we all know once you have visited one chain place you have seen them all they are always identical as possible. I do enjoy bowling I think it is a good fun competitive game for families and although yes it can work out expensive especially with children it's a nice fun evening. It's a buzzing place to go to and allow children to experience a good night out. Although I had a bad experience to begin with I would go back to Hollywood Bowl but I would always book online to save hassle and so you have written proof of what you have actually booked.
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A nice enjoyable review! The nearest bowling alley to us is the "Mega Bowl" in Derby, but I haven't been there for years (might just give it a go again now). Unfortunatly their sign is always playing up, and the "B" never seems to be lit .... so the place is now termed the "Mega Owl"
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Advantages: Nice seats, Student Discount, lots of diffrent movies Disadvantages: annoying people, people jumping from screen to screen, weed smokers outside
dj_ImY 31.03.2009 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
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